by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)–CAN you monetize a child’s separation for more than a year from her mother working overseas? Such question has not only kept both mother…
Category: OFW Corner
OFW families saving; junk cars, new homes
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net LOS BANOS, LAGUNA (OFW Journalism Consortium)–RECENT central bank data doesn’t bode too well for those selling cars and houses to families of overseas Filipino workers. Majority of…
US, Japan, Norway top remittance points of Pinoy seafarers
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—DATA per country from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that the United States, Japan, and Norway are the top three remittance points for…
Money source from Pinoys in four Middle East countries growing
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—DESPITE decreasing wage levels, ban on deployment, and nationalization of labor markets, four Middle East destination countries of Filipino temporary contract workers posted the…
Rising number of young Pinays marrying elderly Asians triggers alarm
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net (Editor’s note: The real identities of women in this story are kept confidential as they requested) QUEZON CITY (OFW Journalism Consortium)–TWENTY-year-old Rita pointed to the words stretched…
‘Low and slow’ count of OFWs with HIV in MDG range, execs say
by JOYCE ANNE B. ROBIÑO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium)—THE rising number of overseas Filipino workers with the human immunodeficiency virus hasn’t rattled government and UN executives who assert the country will…
State insurance no security blanket for OFWs
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANO www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium, Vo. 6, Nos. 8-9, Dec. 16)—DESPITE increasing risks in host countries and disasters in the Philippines, Filipinos abroad still feel safer that remittances…
Analysts cite OWWA fetters in protecting OFWs
by ISAGANI DE LA PAZ www.ofwjournalism.net MANILA (OFW Journalism Consortium, Vol. 6 Nos. 8-9, Dec. 16)—TWO Filipino-American analysts cited imbalanced services and weak state capacity as some of the factors fettering the…
Recruiters seek relaxed immigration law in RP-Japan trade deal
by Jeremaiah M. Opinianowww.ofwjournalism.net QUEZON CITY–RECRUITERS of Filipinos to Japan are tying that country’s immigration law to the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement currently under negotiation, believing that the former is the key…
What Asean migrant’s rights agenda? – analysts
By Jeremaiah Opinianowww.ofwjournalism.net MANILA—ANALYSTS are far from getting their hopes up that migrant workers’ rights would spike interest among leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations who would meet next month…
Migration no guarantee out of rural poverty – WB
by Isagani de la Pazwww.ofwjournalism.net MANILA–CONTRARY to popular beliefs, migration, despite the volume of money it brings, has neither brought rural folks out of poverty nor is it a sure fire way…
Exec says undocumented workers bleeding DFA dry
By Neil Allendewww.ofwjournalism.net PASAY CITY—A FOREIGN Affairs executive bared that Filipino workers going abroad through informal channels and encounters problems are causing financial ills for government. Cresente Relacion, executive director of the…
Labor execs stick to skills as OFW protector
by PATRICIA MARCELOwww.ofwjournalism.net MANDALUYONG CITY—THE light-brown beef stew simmering on a pot in a makeshift kitchen here may save Jennifer Dul-loog’s life as a household service worker in Spain. So the 29-year-old…
Pinoys in the US mull ‘hero’ tag
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANOwww.ofwjournalism.net BAY FAIR, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A.–OUTSIDE THE five-car intercity train streaks of images rush as white as Rodrigo’s streaks of hair, the flecks of paint on his denim, rubber shoes,…
Money from Pinoys abroad still short of spurring growth
by JEREMAIAH M. OPINIANOwww.ofwjournalism.net SAN QUINTIN, PANGASINAN–THE spire on a Tudor-style mansion encircled by green rice reeds jutting from acres of land here points people to where money, real dollars, could be…